Tuesday 11/13/12

Sen. Charles Grassley opened up a teleconference with reporters on Tuesday saying he and other wind-energy supporters would be holding a press conference today on Capitol Hill seeking congressional approval for an extension of the wind-energy production tax credit.

The credit expires at the end of the year and concern about its demise has once again stalled out development of new wind towers across the country.

"Wind energy production accounts for thousands of jobs in Iowa and obviously many times that across the country," said Grassley, R-Iowa.

While advocates realize the tax credit needs to be phased out over the next few years, they nonetheless say the tax credit needs a one-year extension in this lame-duck session of Congress. "This credit is crucial to seeing the wind industry succeed and mature," Grassley said.

The Senate Finance Committee has passed 60 "tax extender" provisions for businesses, including the wind-energy credit. Grassley said he saw no reason anyone would want to cull the wind-energy credit out of that piece of legislation.

On the farm bill, Grassley said Congress has to reach an agreement on a one-year extension of the 2008 legislation or adopt a five-year bill. Grassley said if he were a betting man, he would take the one-year extension. He will advocate for the full five-year bill, but opposition within his own party remains.

"On the part of conservatives in both the House and the Senate, if you get into next year after March 1 you will have a lower baseline to deal with so you would save more money," Grassley said. "There is some opposition to having any farm bill whatsoever. That would come from probably the same group of people. And then you have got city people who don't know anything about the farm bill anyway, but they want the food-stamp part of it."

One the farm bill, Roll Call reported late Monday that House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, may lay out by week's end how to resolve the farm bill.

Sen. Grassley, I am not opposed to research and developement of alternative energy sources. When will wind, solar, renewables etc. provide enough energy to self sustain without all the hoopala of tax incentives to support it. Free enterprize creates jobs, not government! The efforts to promote jobs for wind construction in Spain has that country in a dire financial crisis. Is that not a concern?

Posted by Bonnie Dukowitz at
5:50AM CST 11/15/12

Bonnie, then why do we continue to give big oil subsidies? They haven't needed it for a very long time. Plus, we have a military that provides big oil protection in certain areas of the world. Should we start charging big oil for that as well? I think we need to continue to push for the expansion of wind, solar, and renewables to make them "profitable" so that we can keep our troops out of harms way. There is a reason we are always involved in conflict in the Middle East and not Africa. It's called Oil.

Posted by Matthew Schreurs at
9:32AM CST 11/15/12

Mathew, Was referencing subject matter of the article, not the total mess in government.

Posted by Bonnie Dukowitz at
8:41AM CST 11/16/12

Mathew makes too much sense, he doesn't realize that we need to sustain the big fossil fuel industries to keep jobs in dirty coal mines, exploding oil platforms and huge military excursions in Iraq and other Mideast countries to keep us in gas guzzling carbon belching monster pu trucks/SUV's! AND when that oil gets low we go to the tar sands and miles deep in the ocean to wring out the last drop by using even more carbon fuels to cause greater climate change....... um but you know Bonnie, there was an election and the majority rejected the Tea Party's ideology you preach,,,, it has become like "junk science" and while you have the right to keep on espousing that, "We the People" have mandated wind turbines over guns to get our energy needs and folks that think like Matthew are in charge!

Posted by Jay Mcginnis at
8:25AM CST 11/22/12

C'mon Jay, Don't be so quick to ridicule and demean. Please show enough respect of opinions by others to at least read before putting others down. My very first sentence of my contribution to this blog is quite self explantary. Where and how can you interpret that I favor tax subsidies for big corporations of any type. I am of the opinion all industry should be self sustaining, without specials favors, at some point. I did not disagree with Matthews' statement in any sense but simply tried to keep to the subject matter of the article.

Fri Jul 31, 2015 04:17 PM CDTPresident Barack Obama signed off on the temporary bill Friday, but indicated his frustration with Congress over the inability to approve a long-term highway bill. He noted that the lack of a long-term bill makes it hard for governors and mayors to set priorities for roads, bridges, airports and ports.

Thu Jul 30, 2015 10:00 AM CDTA number of agriculture interest groups are among 269 organizations that asked President Barack Obama Wednesday to stop the release of more stringent national ambient air quality standards by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, set for release sometime this year.

Mon Jul 27, 2015 11:35 AM CDTThe White House announced Monday it was launching an initiative highlighting the "American Business Act on Climate Pledge. The effort spotlighted 13 large American companies pushing for action on climate change. The announcement had some emphasis on agriculture, food processing and continued opportunities for landowners to make money through renewable energy, particularly expanded wind production.

Thu Jul 23, 2015 01:44 PM CDTUSDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service is launching a conservation survey of farmers and ranchers to get an idea of what kinds of practices farmers are implementing, according to a news release from USDA.

Wed Jul 22, 2015 02:50 PM CDTEnvironmentalists and others who contend the only way to reduce nutrients runoff into the Gulf of Mexico is through regulation, may not be happy with the release of the final Illinois nutrient loss reduction strategy Tuesday that is a virtual copy of the Iowa strategy hammered on by critics as 'too soft.'

Mon Jul 20, 2015 01:17 PM CDTFor a third-consecutive year a cover crops survey of 1,200 farmers across the country continue to see bumps in corn and soybean yields following the use of cover crops. In addition, the Conservation Technology Information Center Cover Crop Survey recorded an increase in the number of cover crop acres planted nationwide.

Fri Jul 17, 2015 03:08 PM CDTThe Senate Finance Committee on Friday rolled out a package of business tax breaks that the committee will take up on Tuesday. The plan deals with about 50 individual and business taxes that would translate into about $95.6 billion in overall tax breaks for people and companies.

Wed Jul 15, 2015 12:27 PM CDTIn the debate over agricultural market access in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, the European agricultural group Copa-Cogeca has spelled out some conditions its leaders believe need to be met to make the European trade deal a benefit for both sides of the Atlantic.

Mon Jul 13, 2015 11:30 AM CDTI got an email over the weekend from my congressman, an enthusiastic freshman, who is boasting that Congress, as a government agency, has cut its own budget. Other government agencies should do the same.

Thu Jul 9, 2015 01:30 PM CDTA bill that would make significant cuts to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency budget was grounded Thursday, after Republican members objected to an amendment passed by voice vote Tuesday night to ban the Confederate flag at national cemeteries, according to The Hill.

Tue Jul 7, 2015 11:33 AM CDTThe American Farm Bureau Federation sent a letter Monday to every member of the House of Representatives asking lawmakers to "reject any proposals that amend, repeal, defund or otherwise modify or interfere with the Renewable Fuels Standard."

Wed Jul 1, 2015 02:42 PM CDTThe U.S. Agriculture Coalition for Cuba praised the announcement Wednesday by President Barack Obama that the U.S. and Cuba will officially re-establish diplomatic relations on July 20 with the re-opening of respective embassies.

Mon Jun 29, 2015 05:06 PM CDTIt would generally be considered a pretty rare occurrence that the National Cattlemen's Beef Association finds itself in agreement with the group Food & Water Watch. But the two disparate groups nonetheless find themselves equally appalled at USDA for allowing imported beef from northern Argentina and 14 states Brazil known for FMD outbreaks.

Fri Jun 26, 2015 11:59 AM CDTLeaders from the group AGree this week called on Congress to take a top-to-bottom review of agricultural research in the country. AGree's leaders issued a paper breaking down issues surrounding research and development in agriculture and food production. The group AGree was formed to seek consensus among different stakeholders on policy areas important to agriculture.

Wed Jun 24, 2015 02:24 PM CDTSenate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts and his committee's ranking member, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, head into a hearing Thursday clearly divided on the issue of country-of-origin labeling for meat. Roberts is pushing for full repeal of the labels while Stabenow is pitching a voluntary approach to the problem.

Tue Jun 16, 2015 08:44 AM CDTAhead of a scheduled June 25 public hearing in Kansas City, Kansas, on the Renewable Fuel Standard Iowa's Congressional delegation is asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to host a public hearing in Iowa.

Fri Jun 12, 2015 12:51 PM CDTThe House Energy and Commerce Committee will weigh in on the debate over biotech labeling laws next week with a hearing over legislation by Rep. Mike Pompeo, a Republican from Kansas.

Wed Jun 10, 2015 09:33 PM CDTThe House voted 300 to 131 to repeal country of origin labels for meat. While the bill now goes to the Senate, the House vote represents a victory for Canadian and Mexican livestock producers.